Staebler-Wronski effect in hydrogenated amorphous silicon and related alloy films

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon and related alloy films have attracted much attention because of the wide application of these films in devices such as thin-film transistors and solar cells. However, the degradation of these films caused by intense illumination is a serious shortcoming. In this review, various experimental results concerning this problem and various models for the photocreation of dangling bonds which is thought to be the main origin of the degradation are introduced and discussed. Degradation in the device performance, some efforts to overcome the degradation and some metastable defects other than photocreated ones are also briefly introduced.